Maine Foliage Report September 19

The first day of Fall is Saturday, September 22nd. I was amazed when I travelled down to Mount Blue High School in Farmington last Friday night at the extent that the leaves had already started to turn in some of the valleys, especially near the Skowhegan area.

I love travelling down to Ellsworth, Bar Harbor and Southwest Harbor this time of the year as the foliage is usually spectacular, and on Friday afternoons, there's no better view of the mountains and foliage from the Mount Desert Island High School Football Field's Press Box. The picture is usually worthy of being on a jigsaw puzzle box!

Here's this week's report from the Maine Department of Conversation.

"Fall foliage in northernmost Maine is now a third of the way to peak color, according to the second 2012 Fall Foliage Report from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Currently, Maine Forest Service and state park rangers are reporting overall leaf color on the low end of moderate, or 30-50 percent toward peak, with low leaf drop in all of Aroostook County, and northernmost Piscataquis and Somerset Counties (Zone 7, 6 and 4 Northern).

Rangers at Baxter State Park north of Millinocket, and Aroostook State Park in Presque Isle are observing foliage color at 35-40 percent toward peak. "Colors are improving and changing daily, with reds making a big jump this past week," said Park Manager Scott Thompson at Aroostook State Park. "The birch and beech leaves are showing some color change, and the overall colors in the park should be very radiant moving into the middle of next week."

Rangers in the northwestern tracking zone covering Greenville, Moosehead Lake, Jackman, The Forks and Stratton are observing low leaf color, or 10-30 percent toward peak, and low leaf drop, according to the report.

Leaf color and leaf drop remains very low, or less than 10 percent, in the remainder of the state, according to rangers. Overnight temperatures in the 40s and the continued decrease in daylight will spark the gradual change in leaf color from north to south through late October, according to the report."

The full report may be seen here

http://www.maine.gov/doc/foliage/report/index.shtml